Small-bore jacketed projectile ammunition is known in various designs. It may be divided into those with hard cores made of steel, into those with hard cores made from dense sintered material and those with a medium additional to the hard core such as lead, aluminum and/or air. Together with such a core, commercially available ammunition has a steel jacket, generally configured as a full jacket, i.e. a plated steel jacket or a jacket made from a copper/zinc alloy (tombac jacket). In this connection, the jacket receives one or more cores and further media and encloses said cores and media at least in a liquid-tight manner.
Small arms ammunition and a manufacturing process therefor is known from EP-A2-0 106 411. The correspondingly optimized projectiles principally serve as live ammunition for infantry and already have good aerodynamic properties. This ammunition, however, does not have the required high final ballistic energy required by marksmen, which is necessary for penetrating armour plating. A further drawback is the large amount of hard lead (98% Pb+2% Sn) in the core, which has a toxic effect on the environment both in blank ammunition and live ammunition and therefore is undesirable nowadays or even prohibited in some countries.
A jacketed projectile (WO 99/10703) of increased penetration performance and target accuracy has a hard core made of tungsten carbide and, as an additional medium, a soft core made of lead (Pb/Sn 60/40) which are held with an interference fit in a gastight manner via a brass disc in the jacket. Thus the escape of heavy metals and/or vapor when firing is prevented; a toxic effect is, however, still present in the target area. Additionally, the manufacture of such a projectile is costly and too expensive for mass use (infantry ammunition).
A further jacketed projectile for 9 mm bore pistols is marketed under the reference SWISS P SELF 9 mm Luger (RUAG Ammotec, Thun/Switzerland, formerly RUAG ammunition Thun/Switzerland). In this case, the projectile consists of two sleeves pushed inside one another, the inner sleeve sealed at the tail and open upwards, enclosing a large air space with the outer sleeve. This projectile is, however, only designed for soft targets and, in this case, is able to be driven through smoothly; it may be manufactured as lead-free.
A jacketed projectile with a bore of up to 15 mm is known from DE-A1-107 10 113 which comprises an ogival or conical front region, a cylindrical central part and a conically extending tail region. The ductile metallic jacket encloses a pointed hard core made of hardened steel or made of a sintered metal and is more or less freely held by a shoe-like or sheath-like support made from a ductile metal or made of synthetic material. The core is only in linear contact with the jacket in the region of an angular shoulder. The penetrative action of this projectile on armor plated targets is good; the target accuracy thereof is, however, markedly reduced. In particular with an oblique impact on the target, the front part of the projectile jacket splinters and deforms and thereby presses the hard core out of its initial symmetrical axial position which, as the effective cross-section becomes greater, at least reduces the penetration performance or even leads to ricochets. Additionally, the manufacture of the projectile is costly and, due to the more or less free positioning of the hard core, may not be carried out with great accuracy.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a small-bore projectile (small-bore=bore less than 0.5″) suitable for hard targets, which may be manufactured economically, has a high penetration performance and target accuracy and does not release heavy metals on firing or in the target area. The projectile to be provided is intended, in particular, to contain no lead in the core. The projectile jacket is also intended not to splinter on a hard target.